Photo essay: Jobs (and) security

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‘Ojo del Halcón’ or Totem in a building in Buenos Aires. | ALL PHOTOS AP/RODRIGO ABD

Over recent years in Buenos Aires, a new trend has emerged – one that’s very clearly visible when walking past an apartment block.

Hundreds of owners and tenants of middle-class buildings in the nation’s capital have hired a new virtual security service called ‘Ojo del Halcón,’ better know as Totem or Hawkeye.

This new technology, marketed by traditional security companies, breaks with an established tradition as it replaces the humans who physically guard the buildings with machines, which are monitored by security guards from a headquarters located on the outskirts of the city.

Each operator monitors two buildings, and between 20 and 30 security cameras. One of the worries about the use of virtual security guards is they will replace in-person security guards, prompting their firing and causing mass unemployment in their ranks.

In this photo-essay, Associated Press photographer Rodrigo Abd shows us the apartment blocks that are guarded, the virtual security guard operators who use the system – and the porters they are replacing.